LINCOLN — Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen has become the latest public official in the U.S. to face threats of violence in what he called a “sobering” experience, following the announcement of felony charges against an Omaha man accused of threatening to shoot his grandchildren and others at their school.
Pillen told reporters this week that he is grateful to state troopers, who protect Nebraska’s first family, as well as intelligence investigators who he said had the situation figured out “within four hours.”
“That gives me and Suzanne and our family incredible comfort and peace,” Pillen said Monday. “We’re trying like heck to protect our babies. I mean, I got grandbabies that are going into fourth grade and freshmen, and those are hard subjects to talk about.”
The incident follows attacks and other threats against prominent political leaders nationwide, including multiple assassination attempts against President Donald Trump, a Republican, in 2024; the arson of the Pennsylvania Governor’s Mansion of Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, last year; a plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, in 2020; and the shooting at a charity baseball practice for Republican lawmakers in northern Virginia that critically wounded U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise, a Louisiana Republican, in 2017…